Posted By Daniel Greenfield On October 23, 2012 @ 2:38 pm In The Point | 6 Comments

Obama lied more than 5 times in the debate, but there are lies and then there are egregious lies. There were lies that he told about his Government Motors bailout that don’t involve foreign policy. And there are lies that he told just for the sake of lying.

“In Egypt we stood on the side of democracy. In Libya we stood on the side of the people. And as a consequence there is no doubt that attitudes about Americans have changed,” Obama said.

“Obama said attitudes of US have changed, mentioning Egypt. In Egypt, only 19% view U.S. favorably, down 3 points since 08.”

The reality is that Egyptians liked America better under Bush. Perhaps instead of Obama running for a second term to repair the damage that Bush did to our relations with the Muslim world, George should run for a third term to repair our relations with the Muslim world.

Without that improvement in attitudes, the entire Hearts and Minds CVE exercise of the Arab Spring looks like Obama badly undermined our national security with nothing to show for it.

2. Obama tried to use the Iraq War against Romney, accusing him of wanting to leave behind US forces there under a Status of Forces agreement, while denying that he wanted to do the same thing. The truth was that either Biden and his Secretary of Defense had gone rogue, or Obama was lying.

ROMNEY: “You and I agreed, I believe, that there should have been a ‘Status of Forces’ agreement.” OBAMA: “That’s not true.”

“Mr. Obama sought to negotiate a Status of Forces Agreement that would have allowed United States troops to stay in Iraq after 2011. Initially, the Obama administration was prepared to keep up to 10,000 troops in Iraq. Later, the Obama administration lowered the figure to about 5,000 troops – some 3,500 of which would be continuously based in the country while the remainder would periodically be rotated through.

This is important because Obama has gone on pretending that he had nothing to do with the Iraq War. In fact he extended his original troop withdrawal deadline to match Bush’s deadline and attempted to extend it even further.

3. That easy victory in Libya was one of Obama’s boasts. Like so much else that came out of his mouth during the debate, it just wasn’t true.

“We were able to, without putting troops on the ground, at the cost of less than what we spent in two weeks in Iraq, liberate a country that had been under the yoke of dictatorship for 40 years,” Obama said.

The total cost for the first five years of the war in Iraq was 646 Billion. Which breaks down to about 700 Million for two weeks which is less than the 896 million the U.S. spent on military intervention in Libya.

But those numbers are still deceptive. The Iraq War was not supposed to cost what it did. It’s the chaos and violence that came after the fall of Saddam that did it. That same chaos and violence has begun to spread in Libya.

The Benghazi attack and the takeover of Mali are part of the initial cost of the Libyan War. The Gaza attacks on Israeli aircraft using Libyan weapons are part of the initial cost of the Libyan War. The Libyan weapons used in a plot to kill thousands in Jordan are part of the initial cost of the Libyan War.

Enough of these “incidents” and the Libyan War may end up costing more than the entire Iraq War.

4. Obama is plotting to fire 100,000 military personnel, but insisted on claiming that he’s keeping faith with our troops and that their unemployment levels are low, even as he’s cutting their health care.

“The first lady has done great work with an organization called Joining Forces putting our veterans back to work. And as a consequence, veterans’ unemployment is actually now lower than general population, it was higher when I came into office. So those are the kinds of things that we can now do because we’re making that transition in Afghanistan,” Obama said.

However the rate among veterans of America’s most recent wars – in Iraq and Afghanistan – is currently higher than that of the general population.

Obama wants to sell his defeat in Afghanistan as a smooth transition. That isn’t the case. It isn’t the case in Afghanistan and it isn’t the case for the 50,000 soldiers being dumped into a dead job market already overcrowded with the unemployed.

5. Obama claimed that things were going well with Israel. Better than well. Better than better.

“We have created the strongest military and intelligence cooperation between our two countries in history,” Obama said.

“Obama declined to meet with Netanyahu last month when Israeli leader visited the U.S. And asked by Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes whether he felt pressure on Iran from Israel, Obama said he would ‘block out any noise’ from the Israelis.”

Obama and his surrogates point to diplomatic praise from Israeli government officials, but such praise is diplomatic and meaningless. Israeli leaders will praise every US administration, just as every US administration will praise every Israeli administration. These statements are absolutely meaningless.

In reality, Israel feels left out of an Islamist alliance that Obama has tried to build in the Middle East and it distrusts an administration overstaffed with hostile figures and critics of Israel.